Child-thief Cherie Amoore, 32, who lost her own infant a month earlier, said grabbing the stranger’s baby was like ‘holding my son again’
Shocking CCTV footage shows a woman befriending a mother in a shopping mall – before snatching her baby and fleeing.
The terrifying video shows Cherie Amoore, 32, approaching new mother Malika Hunter in the King Prussia Mall in Montgomery County, Maryland.
When the pair take Malika’s seven-week-old boy Ahsir and her two-year-old son to the food court, Amoore grabs the tot right from under the nose of its loving mother and walks briskly away.
The baby snatcher revealed to police that she had recently lost her own child in February shortly before the incident on March 31.
Amoore said that holding little Ahsir 'felt like I was holding my son again'.
The video footage shows the 32-year-old, who was described as ‘calm and polite’ by Malika, leaving the mall with the baby held closely to her chest.
Police closed down the entire mall and began searching for the child who was found at Amoore’s home five hours after the snatching at around 10:30pm.
According to NBC 10, the thief told police she could not explain her ‘crazy’ actions.
She said: “I don’t know why I did it. I can’t explain it. I held him, and all those feelings rushed back. I just wanted my baby.
“I felt like I was holding my son again. It felt so good. I didn’t want to lose that feeling. I was crazy. I never intended to do anything like this.”
Mum-of-two Malika said that at first Amoore seemed like a ‘normal, average’ person.
She said: “She was so polite. Nice, calm and energetic. Like the normal, average person.”
The horrifying crime sparked a police search with authorities even checking buses near the retail complex before eventually tracking down the child and the assailant at her address.
Amoore has not entered a plea and was slapped with a massive $500,000 bail.
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